


the taste of your lips is my idea of luxury

by hearden



Category: Power Rangers in Space
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-24 14:21:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,251
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17705903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hearden/pseuds/hearden
Summary: Zhane is on his own in space, and Cassie visits him every now and then.





	the taste of your lips is my idea of luxury

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kathillards](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kathillards/gifts).



> happy ranger romance, pearl! i bounced around like ten different ideas before i wrote this bc honestly being a polyshipper just means i'm indecisive as all hell. i took many creative liberties so i really hope you enjoyed this as much as i did writing it! love that angst and drama. also this was my 60th fic, so this is how much i love you.

After he saves Earth and the universe, Zhane finds himself back in space. The Power Rangers become Earth celebrities, but he leaves to help KO-35 back on its feet and, somehow, finds himself stuck managing a station that was meant to reintroduce citizens back to KO-35 and bring business to its surface. He doesn't quite know how it happens, but someone tells him he's got the face to attract people to KO-35, and Zhane can't quite argue with that.

The station quickly, under his management becomes something undefinable between a rest stop and a convenience store and a hotel. It has no name because it'd be too much of a hassle to translate it into every language that could come through his doors, but it's useful with everything that travelers need, and his higher management lets him do whatever he wants, which is probably not for the best. But, he considers it good for KO-35, and that's what counts.

Andros and Karone return to KO-35, visit him every now and then. Most of the others stay on Earth, TJ leaving for a baseball scholarship, Ashley going to university for fashion design, Carlos coaching a soccer camp, and Cassie…

"So," he asks her, smirking, "Are you a world star yet?"

Cassie rolls her eyes and chuckles. She fidgets with a pink pen that's in a cup of many other pens right beside his cash register that holds absolutely nothing and everything. Space has no real currency, and he takes whatever, much to the chagrin of his higher management, if they knew. "No, not yet. I haven't even gotten anyone to give me a record deal."

"You will soon," Zhane assures without missing a beat, "I promise."

"Can I buy that promise?" she asks, raising her eyebrows.

Zhane shrugs. "Yeah, you can buy anything you need here."

She hums and fixes him with a look, analyzing him to see if he's lying. "Interesting. What about this pen?" Cassie holds it up. There's a pseudo jewel on the top of the pen, catching off of the overhead lights. "What do I have to give you in return?"

"Anything you want."

"Anything?" She looks skeptical.

"Or nothing at all."

Cassie frowns. "That's not how trade works."

"I mean, I don't  _ need _ anything, so you don't have to give me anything. But, whatever you want is fine. Earth money, if you feel like you need to. Some people give me a day of rations they have or a book or anything, really."

She contemplates this for a second, thinking very hard about what she wants to give him, her brow furrowing, and Zhane almost asks for something he can't ask for right now. Then, finally, she digs through the pockets of her uniform jacket and pulls out a pink lanyard. Cassie loudly jingles her keys, examining them, and then pulls a keychain off of it and places it in his palm.

It's a blue ball of fluff with… eyes?

Zhane laughs. "Cute."

"Thanks," Cassie replies as if he had meant her, which he had. She clips the pen to the chest pocket of her jacket and smiles. "Just my color."

 

-

 

Zhane keeps the ball of fluff, which Cassie tells him the next time she comes by that she had named it Jay after TJ, hanging off of a hook on his register so that he can see it everyday. There are exceptions to what Zhane allows people to buy, even though he tells Cassie that there aren't exceptions. There aren't for her, but between her trips, he's had three aliens, a human, and a cat ask him about Cassie's fluffy keychain. He doesn't let them part with it no matter how much they offer him.

"How's business going?" Cassie asks him from across the room, trying on a jacket that's not quite suited for her, as in her, being a human. There's three extra arm holes and he knows if she wears it for too long, her human skin is going to start to itch. But, it's cute to see her figure out which arm holes look least odd for her to try on.

Zhane shrugs and says, "Going," because that's the right thing to say. He has enough customers that this isn't looking like a terrible idea. The trade system, however, is still questioned by his higher management. "You know, I'm not going to let you buy that."

She pouts. "You said I could buy anything I need here."

He chuckles and comes around the counter because she's his only customer right now, pries the jacket from her, careful to not touch it for too long, and hangs it back up. "You don't need it."

"You should come back to Earth sometime," she laments, patting the chest of his jacket. It's his black uniform jacket from his days on the Megaship, but now there's exact duplicates on the opposing wall. He's kind of a celebrity. "Come shopping with me."

"I have plenty of clothes."

"That's not why you shop. You shop to waste time, you know? Look in all the windows and just walk around."

He snorts. "I kind of have to be here."

"Take a day off. Can you?"

Zhane pauses. It actually hadn't occurred to him to ask about that. Being a Ranger had been an all-time job, so… this, theoretically, has its days off. But, he doesn't know who he asks about that. Or, maybe, he determines when he can leave. "Uh, maybe."

"Next Saturday," Cassie decides, "I'm buying your day off."

He doesn't have anything next Saturday. Or any other day, for that matter. There are no plans made in space. "And in return?" he asks, chuckling.

She brushes away an imaginary speck of dust on his shoulder. "I'm gonna get you a nicer jacket. This one's old."

"Are you calling me old?"

"You were in a freezer for awhile," she teases.

 

-

 

Next Saturday, Zhane closes the whole station, theoretically. He sends a message up to the guests in the hotel section that he'll be away and for his higher management, not that he expects them to notice until he's actually back, then he closes the shop and meets Cassie in the docking bay.

It occurs to him when he notices all of the ships docked there are of his guests that he never asked her how she got here, just took for granted that she did.

"And we're getting to Earth… how?"

Cassie holds up her communicator and smiles proudly.

"Right." His is… somewhere. It should've been the first thought, but Zhane's been busy doing really nothing. It's surprising how busy nothing is.

She holds out her hand, and he takes it, bracing himself for the change in atmosphere.

Earth's air is drastically different from the station. For one, it's not artificial, which, while that can be changed on the fly on the station, he likes the natural freshness of Earth's air, even if it is heavily polluted. Zhane inhales the moment the teleportation finishes. They're behind a house that he presumes is the Chans'.

"Missed this?" Cassie teases.

He smiles, coyly, and says, "Missed you."

"Of course you did," Cassie replies, confidently, "Come on, my car's out front."

 

-

 

Sometimes, he probably shouldn't play so fast and loose with trade on the station, but being consistent is good for business, so Zhane sticks with it. Cassie buys him a leather jacket on Earth that's more for wintertime with padding lining the inside. It keeps him warm, and he likes that she remembers, that she's considerate of him. The station has to be mostly cool, anyway, to keep the gardens fresh, so he's always wearing a jacket when he's not in his quarters.

A customer tries to buy it off of him, which is ridiculous considering that it's not even someone from KO-35, someone humanoid.

Zhane spends an hour arguing with the customer in a language that he doesn't have a completely solid grasp on, but he refuses to sell the own clothes on his back. Curse his unconventional bartering.

Cassie comes in on the last leg of the argument, only catching the customer storming out the door and Zhane heaving a sigh and leaning against the countertop. "Tough sale?"

"He wanted my jacket," Zhane scoffs, "I really shouldn't have said people can buy  _ anything _ they need."

"I think it makes you unique."

"Or dumb."

"Why can't it be both?"

Zhane rolls his eyes. "What're you looking for today?"

"Actually..." Cassie reaches into her pocket and pulls out a pink lanyard with a badge on it. The plastic spins around as she holds it up to him, but he catches the words  _ VIP Pass _ and has it figured out by the time she finishes her sentence. "I wanted to sell you something today. I'm just the opener, but..."

"I think you'd still be buying something," he chuckles, "My attendance or something."

"We can figure out the technicalities when you're backstage," she says and winks.

 

-

 

Zhane hadn't gotten to spend much time with Cassie after her concert -- her opening act, she kept insisting on a difference, but he doesn't care which part she's in because it's all still hers -- when she'd been whisked off somewhere else by fans or managers, important people, and Zhane, wandering around, found her squared away in the corner prep room.

Maybe he jiggles the door handle until the lock breaks then waits in there for Cassie. It's fine.

She appears a quarter of an hour later, winded and shutting the door on the sounds of thousands of people cheering, and turns, not at all startled to find him lounging on the couch. "I was gonna leave the door unlocked for you, but I didn't want anyone else sneaking in here."

"Well, you didn't have to because I'm good with my hands," Zhane comments, smugly.

Cassie looks at him for a moment, matching the coy look on his face, and hums to herself then either abandons the thought she was about to voice or shelves it for later. Zhane's only been able to pin down that same look to those two options, but he can't tell which one she chooses.

"You wanna go grab a bite to eat after this?"

"Aren't you heading out tomorrow? There's another concert tomorrow night, right?"

Cassie shrugs. "I'm already done opening. They don't need me right now. We could totally sneak out."

 

-

 

The station has restaurants for the hotel guests, but they're not entirely geared to just humans or humanoids and they're definitely not like restaurants on Earth, so Zhane finds himself missing the pancakes from the diner Cassie had taken him to the last time he was there. They'd been perfectly fluffy, and Cassie had fed him strawberries with her fork then had laughed so hard her food almost fell out of her mouth.

He can buy anything he needs here except that memory all over again.

"I just need a place to stay for the night," Cassie says the next time she comes, broadly grinning, "I've been fighting tooth and nail for a deal all week, and I finally got it."

Zhane manages to keep his enthusiasm in check, somehow. "See?" he says, nodding and playing it off casual, "I keep my promises."

Cassie rolls her eyes and chuckles.

He gives her the code to a hotel room, and she buys a dinner from him that night.

 

-

 

His quarters are the same kind of plain as the hotel rooms, just to keep everything equal, still sleek, comfortable, and minimalistic, but with all the same amenities. Zhane parts ways with Cassie after dinner and heads to his quarters. He doesn't live with much, beyond a few photos on the fireplace mantel of him and the other Astro Rangers.

He doesn't lock the door behind him, maybe because he's waiting and maybe because he knows he's right about having hunches in his gut. It slides open when he's ten minutes through an episode of Galaxy Warriors that he randomly put on, and Cassie walks in, wearing an oversized pink t-shirt and black shorts that definitely are her pajamas.

"Come in?" he jokes, but he wouldn't have cared, anyway.

"You keep it warm in here," she remarks, plopping down on the couch next to him.

"Yeah, well, rest of the station's pretty cold, so. I like it hot."

She wiggles her eyebrows at him, and he snorts.

"Have you ever thought about buying anything?" Cassie asks after a minute.

Zhane takes his eyes off of one monster obliterating another with a laser beam. It's not quite as entertaining as the rest of the galaxy makes it out to be, but that might be because he's spent much of his time blowing up monsters just like those. They're not really that tough. "What, from customers?"

"Yeah, anything you need. I mean, you have to need things, too, right?"

He shrugs and holds her gaze. "I've got everything I need right here."

Cassie tilts her head, purses her lips in deep thought. "Alright," she persists, "But if you could buy anything…"

Zhane chuckles and sits up straighter so he isn't slouching in his seat. "Well, what would I have to give you in return for a kiss?"

She smiles, blushes a little, even though he's sure she knew exactly how this was going to go the moment she walked into his quarters. It's adorable. 

Cassie reaches forward, fingers brushing against the back of his neck, and pulls him into a kiss. "That's free of charge."

**Author's Note:**

> title from King of My Heart - Taylor Swift


End file.
